The earliest structure here was an Israelite fortress, abandoned since the 6th century BC. (It is thought that the round cistern originally belonged to it.) Diggers were able to deduce the site's subsequent history on the basis of coins. A group known as the Essenes founded a new complex here in the last half of the 2nd century BC. (On the connection with the Essenes) The Romans conquered and occupied the site in 68 AD while subjugating the first Jewish revolt.

1. The water system. When we climb the tower (the sole structure standing to its original height), we can see numerous cisterns joined by channels. Some of the smaller ones were surely ritual baths. In the Manual of Discipline (the sect's "constitution"), we read, "They [the men of injustice] shall not enter the water to partake of the pure Meal of the men of holiness..." (V 13 in Vermes, p. 76); Josephus describes this combination of bathing, followed by eating. (While the Essenes were here, a man named John baptized other Jews about six miles away at the Jordan River.) 

2. The scriptorium. Likewise southeast of the tower is a long narrow windowless chamber, into which things had fallen from the second floor. Among them was a narrow plaster table about fifteen feet long, which had been attached to its floor, as well as a bench that had been fixed to its wall. The diggers also found two inkwells here, one with dried ink. 

In the Manual of Discipline (1QS), there are many references to this assembly room in columns VI and VII. For example:

Another version of the Manual (1QSa II, 11-22) talks about this common meal as "a liturgical anticipation of the Messianic banquet" (Cross, pp. 88-90).

4. Sacrifice (?) In the open areas of the complex (for example, in the plateau south of the main building) the diggers found the bones of sheep, goats and cattle neatly buried in jars. These, thinks Cross, "are the remains of the sacral feasts of the community" (Cross, p. 70)

They may have been sacrifices. We know that the Essenes considered the priesthood at the Jerusalem Temple to be illegitimate, and they did not offer sacrifices there. (See Essenes.) Yet they were led by priests. (Their founder, they believed, should have been the High Priest at the Temple.) One may translate a passage in Josephus to read, "they offer sacrifices by themselves" (Antiquities XVIII 1.5). For a discussion, see Cross, pp. 101-102.

6. The potter's workshop. This includes a shallow plastered pool for kneading clay, a round base for the potter's wheel, and two kilns: a big one for baking large pots and another for small vessels, such as the many juglets that the Qumran expedition found. One of these, recently discovered whole in a nearby cave, contains a vegetable extract akin to a powerfully aphrodisiac, enormously expensive perfume called balsam. It was made by the Jews of Jericho and Ein Gedi; their method was a trade secret, now lost.

The jars containing the scrolls were similar to those found at the site, but this fact cannot be used to prove a connection: such jars were not unique to the area.

7. The cemetery. Just east of the main building is the cemetery, which contains more than 1100 graves. They are neatly arranged in rows, a fact which suggests strong organization. Of those that have been excavated, all except one on the upper plateau were the graves of men. (The woman's, at an angle to the others, may date from a different period.) The lower levels include graves of all sexes. (On the complicated question of celibacy, see Essenes.)  

Each grave is marked by an oblong heap of earth, surrounded by a row of unhewn stones, with larger stones standing upright at either end. Thus they resemble Muslim graves, but the latter are on an east-west axis, whereas the Qumran graves have the head on the south side. Since the apocryphal Book of Enoch (of major importance to the Essenes) has the Messiah arriving from the north, the idea may have been that the dead Sons of Light would rise from their graves and greet him. 

6. Where did the Essenes live? The ruins do not suggest living quarters, rather the functional rooms and workshops of a community center. Some have thought the Essenes lived in huts on the esplanade south of the main building. Yet a channel from a cistern leads to it, raising the possibility that they irrigated this area. They may have lived in caves, like some in which scrolls were found. If so, then they were inaugurating the system of the laura followed in this desert by Christian monks six centuries later: the monks lived in caves and came on paths (laurae) to a central monastery for instruction and supplies. 

At Ein Feshkha, about two miles south on lower ground, there are briny springs. Here archaeologists found agricultural installations that fit the time-frame of Qumran.

© 2003 Near East Tourist Agency (NET)

Text © 2003 Stephen Langfur